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13. I Have Never Known Them to Fail in the Hour of Trial: September 21–December 2, 1863
- The University of Alabama Press
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13 i Have Never Known Them to Fail in the Hour of Trial September 21–December 2, 1863 in the two months that followed the Chickamauga victory, the Army of Tennessee tried unsuccessfully to starve the Army of the Cumberland, which held on precariously at Chattanooga, into submission. During this time, General Braxton Bragg, as a part of a series of moves meant to rid his army of dissent and to reward his supporters, created the Florida Brigade, effectively uniting his six Florida regiments into a single unit. The Floridians first fought together in this new formation on November 25, 1863, on missionary ridge, which overlooked Chattanooga . Though this battle saw the Confederates defeated, the Floridians added to their hard-fighting reputation and brought additional honors to their small state. on the morning after the firing ended along Chickamauga Creek’s west bank, the smoke still lay thick in the hollows of the battlefield. General marcellus Stovall’s Florida Brigade’s soldiers awoke long before the sun shed its light on the terrible scene, having been aroused from their blankets in the early hours of the morning when word arrived that cooked rations had reached their bivouac. in the darkness the soldiers devoured their first meal in two days. Stovall’s elated troops spent the next few days visiting their wounded comrades and even seized the opportunity to bathe in Chickamauga Creek to wash the grime and powder stains from their bodies.1 The soldiers in Colonel robert Craig Trigg’s Brigade of William Preston’s Division found the aftermath of their first major battle appalling. Jacob yearty, a 7th Florida soldier, wrote that his regiment “bured the dead too days and did not get half of them bered and they are getting to smell so bad that it is impossible to bury the rest of them we could not get neare all of our men bured.” robert Watson, serving in the same regiment, described spending September 21 “carrying off the wounded and burying the dead all day. it was a terrible sight, friend and foe lying side by side.” Preparing a peaceful rest for the dead remained low on the Confederates ’ list of priorities, though, and on September 22Trigg’s troops marched to the western base of missionary ridge, where they engaged in constructing breastworks. Stovall’s regiments reached Confederate lines near Chattanooga on the same day. Samuel Pasco wrote, “[W]e had a beautiful view of the town below [from atop missionary ridge]. They [the Union Army] appear to be crossing the river on pontoons but are in line of battle to resist us if we crowd them.”2 September 21–December 2, 1863 155 Following the retreat from Chickamauga, a portion of the defeated Army of the Cumberland maintained a defensive position at rossville, southeast of Chattanooga , ready to contest the jubilant rebels. However, due to “the bold maneuvering of Forrest’s cavalry . . . and the unfounded rumor of the impending arrival of additional large Confederate reinforcements, rosecrans had given up a key defensive perimeter and withdrawn his army into the immediate environs of Chattanooga .” By retreating into Chattanooga the Federal general placed his army in a stranglehold, for with the Army of Tennessee commanding lookout mountain, the Union force could rely only on a few rough wagon roads, including a trace over Walden ridge, the bluff that proved so hazardous to the Confederates the previous year, for resupply. With his opponent in a difficult position, Braxton Bragg determined to starve the Union Army into submission while waiting for an opportunity to strike at one of the Federal flanks.3 Bragg positioned John Breckinridge’s Division in the part of the siege line that ran along the western base of missionary ridge. The bivouac of Stovall’s Brigade was near where moore road crossed the ridge; the regiments spent their days either improving their breastworks or on picket duty between the two armies. Prior to the Atlanta Campaign, when enemy sharpshooters posed a constant and deadly threat, the time some Floridians spent on the sentinel lines near Chattanooga represented the closest contact they had with their enemy away from the battlefield. only three miles separated the rebels’ encampment from their foes in Chattanooga , and their picket lines stood only two hundred yards apart. in the crisp, late September weather, the Confederates engaged in heavy firing with enemy sentinels; these fights resulted in occasional casualties. major Jacob lash informed his wife that because the armies were in such close...